Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor, says shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Processing plant on Wednesday for mandatory maintenance may result in power cuts across the country.
The Minister’s comment contradicts an assurance by CEO of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), William Amuna, when the shutdown was announced on August 29.
Mr Amuna had said the ten-day shutdown will not result in power outages, assuring plans have been put in place to increase intake from the Bui Power Plant to feed the grid.
He said power from the Bui plant will be increased to 220 megawatts to complement some 100 megawatts of power from the Ameri Power Plant.
However, the Deputy Power Minister explains despite the available power production capacity, technical challenges my impede smooth power production.
He said some of the plants have depended on gas, especially Ameri and other thermal plants, hence with the Atuabo shutdown there is possible shortfall in gas supply.
“We may switch some of the plants to light crude. We appeal to Ghanaians to bear with us in the event that we may be doing some switching,” he said.
The Atuabo shutdown, which starts from Wednesday, August 31 is to enable engineers to carry out routine maintenance works on the Western Region based gas processes facility.
This planned ten-day maintenance will be third since lean gas and associated liquids production begun.
Mr Jinapor has meanwhile assured that should there be a deficit in power supply it will not persist for long.
“We don’t anticipate the shutdown to be for a long period of time. My understanding is that is for a couple of days,” the Deputy Minister assured.
